South Africa all-rounder Marco Jansen revealed that using the short-ball ploy against the Indian batters was an afterthought, with the ball not moving off the pitch at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium.
Jansen bagged six wickets on the red-soil pitch, which has been largely unresponsive for the majority of the match so far. The tall pacer made the most of his height and unsettled the Indian batters with a hostile spell of fast bowling.
Pitching the ball up in search of movement, Jansen could not find a breakthrough in the first hour of play as the Indian openers forged a 65-run partnership. The left-arm pacer then turned to plan B, and it worked for him and his team.
“To be honest, we just said we were going to try it. It wasn’t like—because their bowlers, Bumrah and Siraj, also got base bounce—the ball wasn’t nipping as much as in Kolkata; the ball wasn’t squatting as much, so we had to figure out a plan. I think when I got my first wicket with a bouncer, we said, ‘Okay, cool, let’s see how long this is going to work for,’ and yeah, it just came off. Like I said, it’s a good wicket: there’s good pace, good bounce. If you play the short ball well, you’ll score runs; if you bowl well, you’ll get wickets,” Jansen said at the press conference.
Courtesy of Jansen’s efforts with both ball and bat, South Africa took a gigantic first-innings lead. The visitors will look to set a huge total for India to chase in the fourth innings and seal the series 2–0.
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